ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission has been designed to observe soil moisture over the Earth's landmasses and salinity over the oceans. Soil moisture data are urgently required for hydrological studies and data on ocean salinity are vital for improving our understanding of ocean circulation patterns.
20 November 2009 This image is the first data sent to Earth by the MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched on 2 November. It was acquired as part of the initial functional verification test since the instrument was switched on on Tuesday.
19 November 2009 The MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally. MIRAS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our understanding of the role these two key variables play in regulating Earth’s water cycle.
SMOS: ESA's water mission 
